Northwest Missouri State U Deploys New Wireless Network

Like other universities across the country, students at Northwest Missouri
State are bringing more and more wireless devices onto campus. On average,
students living in campus residences bring between three and five devices each,
including laptops, tablets, smartphones and video game consoles. The large
number of devices were taxing the university's legacy network. That network was
also vulnerable to failure because it relied on a single controller. If that
controller went down, it would bring down the entire campus wireless network.

Administrators at the school decided to upgrade to a more reliable wireless
network that could support more devices across campus, as well as online testing
in the classrooms. After evaluating the options, they decided on a wireless
network from Xirrus, with four hundred
access points and arrays across campus, and with controller functionality built
into each access point and array.

To simplify the deployment process, the university's IT department "created a
single standard classroom profile and deployed the profile to all classrooms
simultaneously," according to Xirrus. This approach saved the IT team time and
manpower, and enabled the university to implement online testing sooner. After
successful implementation in the classrooms, the IT team rolled out the new
access points and arrays at the Bearcat Arena and other campus facilities.

The Xirrus wireless network now provides coverage to 50 buildings across 90
percent of the campus, including the Bearcat Arena, which seats 2,500 people,
and it can support up to 3,000 users simultaneously during peak periods.
According to Xirrus, the new network "has supported a 100 percent increase in
device connections and connectivity across buildings to date" and has improved
the user density and device usage on campus. And Timothy Carlyle, director of
network computing at the university, said the network can now support hundreds
of of devices simultaneously in a lecture hall.

About the Author

Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at leilameyer@gmail.com.